( imeeji ) app

Character name: Atem
Character canon: Yu-Gi-Oh

Canon summary:

For better or for worse, Atem is the string holding this entire convoluted canon together.

Thousands of years ago, pharaoh Aknamkanon commissioned the creation of a series of magic artifacts to be used in defending Egypt from its various threats. Unbeknownst to Aknamkanon, the artifacts - the Millennium Items - were created using the murdered souls of a village of thieves, which went about as well as anyone might expect. Thief King Bakura, the sole survivor of the massacre, went on to seek his revenge against the kingdom, which mostly involved invoking Dragon Satan and attempting to end the world.

By the time Bakura enacted his revenge plot, Aknamkanon had died and his son, Atem, had inherited the clusterfuck. As the apocalypse loomed over the kingdom and defeat seemed inevitable, Atem used his own name as the seal to a spell that would trap himself and Dragon Satan in the Pendant, shattered it, and erased his own name/memories so that the spell could never be undone. The world was saved, and Pharaoh Atem disappeared from history.

Cut to modern day Japan, when the Items have been excavated from their resting places and have ended up in various irresponsible hands. Yugi Mutou, gifted a magical golden puzzle by his grandfather, spends eight years attempting to solve it before finally succeeding - and in doing so, releases the now-amnesiac spirit of the pharaoh from his prison within the Puzzle. The spirit begins regularly possessing Yugi in order to delegate justice on those who wrong Yugi or his friends. Meanwhile, Ryou Bakura has come to possess the Millennium Ring, and in a similar fashion, the spirit of Thief King Bakura begins to (leisurely...) plot his second vengeance.

Over time, Yugi and the spirit of the Puzzle become more aware of one another, and then finally meet face to face - at which point they form a bond that propels the rest of the series forward. As the spirit grows more self-aware and begins to question who he is and where he came from, Yugi resolves to help him find the answers, and together they play a metric fuckton of card games in order to discover the secret of the pharaoh’s memories and return them to him. They save the world a few times and the defeat Bakura’s second attempt at armageddon via a dramatic Dungeons & Dragons game (yes).

Eventually, they succeed in their quest - and Atem, his name and memories restored, finally moves on to the afterlife.

Character in canon:

As a consequence of his life and his circumstances, Atem’s identity is a sometimes contradictory piecemeal. We don’t know very much about Atem as he was in his first life - the Pharaoh of Egypt, a person who’s never once been locked inside a cursed artifact - and what we do know is mostly lore and assumption. But since the one thing we know for sure is that he sacrificed his life and obliterated himself from history to protect his country, we can guess that who he was before is fairly consistent with who he becomes, some amnesia and a lot of card games later: someone who takes his sense of duty very seriously, is willing to go to extremes to do what needs to be done, and won’t hesitate to sacrifice everything to protect those who have his loyalty.

So, y’know, a shounen protag.

Atem’s sense of duty drives his every action, right down to accepting his own death a second time. His own preferences rarely (if ever) seem to be a factor, to the point that we never even really learn what they are - if it’s what he believes is the right thing to do, or there are outside forces compelling him to believe it must be done (~*~*~*~*~destiny~*~*~*~*~), then that’s the course he’s going to take, no matter the personal cost. This often interacts with his fierce sense of loyalty to those he cares about, which is how we ended up with an amnesiac Atem setting schoolkids on fire because they were mean to his friends - it seemed like the right thing to do at the time! And though, yes, setting schoolkids on fire isn’t exactly ideal, it should be noted that even at his worst, he’s not a psychopath and doesn’t gain pleasure from attacking the innocent or random people. Just the opposite; he gets really worked up about people doing just that, and considers himself an arbiter of justice by going after those he’s decided are guilty of wrongdoing and deserve judgement. His sense of proportional retribution and what justifies punishment is a lil bit skewed at first, but, y’know... he gets better.

He’s also extremely competitive and prideful, and tends to take arrogant, even stupid, risks. His play style usually involves making risky moves that could just as easily blow up in his face, and that translates to his actions outside of the card game as well. Regularly bet his life on dumb shit, mostly out of arrogant pride? Yes, absolutely, seems legit. This is ultimately Atem’s fatal flaw, and one he doesn’t entirely outgrow.

All of that said, over time we see him grow into a softer, kinder person rather than the creepy murder gremlin he starts out as, due mostly to the influence of the people around him. Yugi and his friends don’t fundamentally change who Atem is - it’s clear he’s always been someone doing what he believes is the right thing - but they reframe the world for him. Like: you can have beef with people for being rude assholes (and boy DOES HE), but maybe instead of using dark magic to torture them, you just challenge them to a card game and give them a verbal sassing? (And boy, DOES HE) He goes from playing exploding air hockey with people to denouncing those who hurt others and giving friendship speeches - the only difference in those two scenarios is what Atem feels is the right thing. Retribution, or kindness and mercy?

That change is made entirely possible by his support network. Atem, despite always seeming proud, haughty, and over-confident, is incredibly reliant on his friends for strength and encouragement. When things in a battle are going sideways, or when he’s falling into an existential brooding crisis, it’s always his friends who yank him back up by his collar and bolster his determination to keep going, and, in his own words, it’s the fact that he’s fighting FOR his friends that allows him to claim victory again and again. Whenever his confidence flags, it’s always ~*~the power of friendship~*~ that sets him straight. As a result, protecting and helping his friends is always his main motivation, if it isn’t some larger cause like ~destiny or ~duty. This also leads to the development of his guilt and “everything is all my fault” complex: his presence inevitably leads to a lot of strife and hardship for those around him, something that he never quite comes to term with. He can’t exactly Shadow Game HIMSELF.

On a more mundane level, he’s a huge nerd who takes himself way too seriously and doesn’t know what to say on dates. He’s never gotten to socialize on a casual/friendly level without being (1) literally the king or (2) a creepy disembodied ghost person that his friends might not even always be sure is distinct from their pal Yugi Mutou, so, RIP in pieces kiddo.

Character in Imeeji:

Heard you like amnesia so we’re making you play death games to earn back memories of all the death games you played to earn back your memories!

We all know what happens when Atem has his memories removed: he a little confused, but he got the spirit. His competitiveness, righteous sense of justice, and pridefulness remain as strong as ever, while his more grounded judgement takes a nap.

In this case, the circumstances of his awakening and his amnesia are markedly different, which will likely have an impact on who he is fresh out of the gate. If put in a murder game right after awakening his position would probably be “yes kill them, play 2 win,” and he’ll definitely be plotting to murder the producers, but since he’s not being released from millennia in shadow purgatory face-to-face with a monstrous bully, he’s not likely to try and murder/torture everything in sight the moment he wakes up. He’ll pick his fights more sparingly, likely after he’s decided who he’s going to be yan for, but will take the ruthless path when presented with it in games.

He’s also likely to develop an attachment to someone or someone(s) (likely his team) who will be the object of his fierce loyalty and protectiveness, which can lead to conflict outside of games, depending on how things go down. Talk shit get hit, etc.

There’s also the matter of games themselves, which he is absolutely guaranteed to take way too seriously 100% of the time, and more largely he’ll likely devote his energy to trying to break the system from the inside/get at the producers in some way. Either way, his naturally competitive and prideful nature will still be there, amnesiac or no - he’ll want to win as many points as possible simply because the challenge is there, dammit. The only difference is that he’ll no longer be able to magically alter reality to auto-win everything, so he’ll have to become acquainted with - heaven forbid - losing. That will be a tough and bitter pill to swallow for a while, but will hopefully become a learning experience for him to tone it the fuck down.

Toning it the fuck down will likely be the theme of his arc in general - he can’t use magic to auto-win every game, he can’t guarantee the safety of those around him, he can’t personally arbitrate justice every time there’s a wrongdoing, and freaky torture won’t solve every problem. He’ll have to come to terms with that and his own limits. He’ll also be receiving very disparate memories - memories of his first life as a pharaoh, and memories of his time as a disembodied revenge spirit, two very different lives - and he’ll have to reconcile those identities with this new one he develops in Imeeji. For a while it will likely be an identity crisis mindfuck.

All of that said, since we basically did all this in canon already, to me the real point of interest is who he becomes when soft reset under these differing circumstances. Though he technically lived twice, he never actually got to live his own life, ever. What would happen if he did get that opportunity? What if he were allowed to grow into someone with the luxury of just being a person, not a king doomed to die or a wandering spirit? He’ll have the chance to form his own relationships with people, not secondhand friendships through the host he’s possessing. He’ll have to deal with defeat and disappointment. He won’t have a constantly looming destiny over his head to dictate all his actions - he’ll have to determine those priorities for himself.

Regarding teams, since we’ve established he’s heavily dependent on those around him, I want to put him with people who will not only help corral him into being a more balanced person, but also people who will value him on an individual level and force him to stop and consider himself as someone with desires, hopes, preferences, and a future. He draws so much of his strength and character from his support network that this will be a major factor in how he develops. Though ☆ZRAEL or BE=DE would be hilarious for encouraging all of his worst habits and traits, HSS is the team that I feel is the best middle ground and would best suit the person he begins as AND the person he levels up to: picking fights and yelling a lot, while simultaneously dishing friendship speeches.Team HOT-BLOODED POWER OF FRIENDSHIP will probably hit most of the wants listed above, can stand up to him when he’s misbehaving, all while not stifling his natural propensity for being Way Too Extra.